`Suppose we change the subject,' the March Hare interrupted,

yawning.  `I'm getting tired of this.  I vote the young lady

tells us a story.'

  `I'm afraid I don't know one,' said Alice, rather alarmed at

the proposal.

  `Then the Dormouse shall!' they both cried.  `Wake up,

Dormouse!'  And they pinched it on both sides at once.

  The Dormouse slowly opened his eyes.  `I wasn't asleep,' he

said in a hoarse, feeble voice:  `I heard every word you fellows

were saying.'

  `Tell us a story!' said the March Hare.

  `Yes, please do!' pleaded Alice.

  `And be quick about it,' added the Hatter, `or you'll be asleep

again before it's done.'

  `Once upon a time there were three little sisters,' the

Dormouse began in a great hurry; `and their names were Elsie,

Lacie, and Tillie; and they lived at the bottom of a well--'

  `What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great

interest in questions of eating and drinking.

  `They lived on treacle,' said the Dormouse, after thinking a

minute or two.

  `They couldn't have done that, you know,' Alice gently

remarked; `they'd have been ill.'

  `So they were,' said the Dormouse; `VERY ill.'

  Alice tried to fancy to herself what such an extraordinary ways

of living would be like, but it puzzled her too much, so she went

on:  `But why did they live at the bottom of a well?'

  `Take some more tea,' the March Hare said to Alice, very

earnestly.

  `I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, `so

I can't take more.'

  `You mean you can't take LESS,' said the Hatter:  `it's very

easy to take MORE than nothing.'

  `Nobody asked YOUR opinion,' said Alice.

  `Who's making personal remarks now?' the Hatter asked

triumphantly.

  Alice did not quite know what to say to this:  so she helped

herself to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the

Dormouse, and repeated her question.  `Why did they live at the

bottom of a well?'

  The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and

then said, `It was a treacle-well.'

  `There's no such thing!'  Alice was beginning very angrily, but

the Hatter and the March Hare went `Sh! sh!' and the Dormouse

sulkily remarked, `If you can't be civil, you'd better finish the

story for yourself.'

  `No, please go on!' Alice said very humbly; `I won't interrupt

again.  I dare say there may be ONE.'

  `One, indeed!' said the Dormouse indignantly.  However, he

consented to go on.  `And so these three little sisters--they

were learning to draw, you know--'

  `What did they draw?' said Alice, quite forgetting her promise.

  `Treacle,' said the Dormouse, without considering at all this

time.

  `I want a clean cup,' interrupted the Hatter:  `let's all move

one place on.'

  He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him:  the

March Hare moved into the Dormouse's place, and Alice rather

unwillingly took the place of the March Hare.  The Hatter was the

only one who got any advantage from the change:  and Alice was a

good deal worse off than before, as the March Hare had just upset

the milk-jug into his plate.

  Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse again, so she began

very cautiously:  `But I don't understand.  Where did they draw

the treacle from?'

  `You can draw water out of a water-well,' said the Hatter; `so

I should think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well--eh,

stupid?'

  `But they were IN the well,' Alice said to the Dormouse, not

choosing to notice this last remark.

  `Of course they were', said the Dormouse; `--well in.'

  This answer so confused poor Alice, that she let the Dormouse

go on for some time without interrupting it.

  `They were learning to draw,' the Dormouse went on, yawning and

rubbing its eyes, for it was getting very sleepy; `and they drew

all manner of things--everything that begins with an M--'

  `Why with an M?' said Alice.

  `Why not?' said the March Hare.

  Alice was silent.

  The Dormouse had closed its eyes by this time, and was going

off into a doze; but, on being pinched by the Hatter, it woke up

again with a little shriek, and went on:  `--that begins with an

M, such as mouse-traps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness--

you know you say things are "much of a muchness"--did you ever

see such a thing as a drawing of a muchness?'

  `Really, now you ask me,' said Alice, very much confused, `I

don't think--'

  `Then you shouldn't talk,' said the Hatter.

  This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear:  she got

up in great disgust, and walked off; the Dormouse fell asleep

instantly, and neither of the others took the least notice of her

going, though she looked back once or twice, half hoping that

they would call after her:  the last time she saw them, they were

trying to put the Dormouse into the teapot.

  `At any rate I'll never go THERE again!' said Alice as she

picked her way through the wood.  `It's the stupidest tea-party I

ever was at in all my life!'

  Just as she said this, she noticed that one of the trees had a

door leading right into it.  `That's very curious!' she thought.

`But everything's curious today.  I think I may as well go in at once.'

And in she went.

  Once more she found herself in the long hall, and close to the

little glass table.  `Now, I'll manage better this time,'

she said to herself, and began by taking the little golden key,

and unlocking the door that led into the garden.  Then she went

to work nibbling at the mushroom (she had kept a piece of it

in her pocket) till she was about a foot high:  then she walked down

the little passage:  and THEN--she found herself at last in the

beautiful garden, among the bright flower-beds and the cool fountains.

                          CHAPTER VIII

                   The Queen's Croquet-Ground

  A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden:  the

roses growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at

it, busily painting them red.  Alice thought this a very curious

thing, and she went nearer to watch them, and just as she came up

to them she heard one of them say, `Look out now, Five!  Don't go

splashing paint over me like that!'

  `I couldn't help it,' said Five, in a sulky tone; `Seven jogged

my elbow.'

  On which Seven looked up and said, `That's right, Five!  Always

lay the blame on others!'

  `YOU'D better not talk!' said Five.  `I heard the Queen say only

yesterday you deserved to be beheaded!'

  `What for?' said the one who had spoken first.

  `That's none of YOUR business, Two!' said Seven.

  `Yes, it IS his business!' said Five, `and I'll tell him--it

was for bringing the cook tulip-roots instead of onions.'

  Seven flung down his brush, and had just begun `Well, of all

the unjust things--' when his eye chanced to fall upon Alice, as

she stood watching them, and he checked himself suddenly:  the

others looked round also, and all of them bowed low.

  `Would you tell me,' said Alice, a little timidly, `why you are

painting those roses?'

  Five and Seven said nothing, but looked at Two.  Two began in a

low voice, `Why the fact is, you see, Miss, this here ought to

have been a RED rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake;

and if the Queen was to find it out, we should all have our heads

cut off, you know.  So you see, Miss, we're doing our best, afore

she comes, to--'  At this moment Five, who had been anxiously

looking across the garden, called out `The Queen!  The Queen!'

and the three gardeners instantly threw themselves flat upon

their faces.  There was a sound of many footsteps, and Alice

looked round, eager to see the Queen.